Trivia / Doctor Who S26 E2 "Ghost Light"

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• Completely Different Title: Das Haus der tausend Schrecken ("The House of a Thousand Frights/Horrors") in Germany, as revealed in production notes.
• Promoted Fanboy: Writer Marc Platt was one of only two writers in the entire history of the series (the other being "Full Circle" writer Andrew Smith) to have a script accepted with no professional writing experience whatsoever, and no writing background beyond Doctor Who fanfiction. And the result is one of the Seventh Doctor's most high-concept and original adventures.
• Prop Recycling: The frog and fish footmen costumes came from a recent production of Alice in Wonderland.
• Throw It In!: It was Sylvester McCoy's idea to change the Doctor's closing line from “That's my girl!” to “Wicked.”
• What Could Have Been:
  • The story grew out of one of Marc Platt’s earlier ideas, an ambitious script called Lungbarrow. Set on Gallifrey in the Doctor’s ancestral home, it would’ve been the culmination of the "Cartmel Masterplan", a sort-of-Myth Arc that the script editor had been putting mysterious references throughout his time on the show. John Nathan-Turner turned down the story, mostly because of how much of a Wham Episode it would’ve been. Some elements were kept though, such as Mackenzie, the trapped policeman.
  • One key scene was not completed due to time constraints, and featured Mackenzie encountering the night maids and Mrs Pritchard as they prepare to leave, whereupon one of the maids chases him with a machete. This explains why he is hurrying and muttering about Gabriel Chase being "a mad house" just prior to his death at Light's hands. Several more scenes were cut or trimmed in post-production due to the serial running overlength. These included Nimrod resigning his position, Light preventing Mackenzie from leaving Gabriel Chase by causing the door to become bolted, and material expanding on the spy devices Josiah has secreted in the upper observatory where the TARDIS materialises.
  • In the scene where the Doctor demands of Light "Why don't you forget the survey, Light, and go?" the intention was that CGI effects would be added to show Light attacking him. Then they weren't, so it looks like the Doctor is pulling faces for no reason.
  • An extended cut was considered for the 2004 DVD release, but the restoration team decided not to go ahead with it due to most of the deleted scenes only existing as a VHS copy with a burnt-in timecode. Ultimately averted with the 2020 Blu-ray's "extended workprint", which reinstates the cut VHS footage and blurs out the timecode. This goes some way to clearing up the story's impenetrable nature.
  • Marc Platt envisioned an army of Husks, before the numbers were trimmed to three and then just two (omitting a fish-man husk). It was hoped that the faces of the reptilian and insectoid husks might incorporate echoes of Josiah's human features. 
  • During the early stages of his development, Light was silent and had wings (which he used to smother the maid in episode three); the latter element was abandoned due to concerns that they could not be effectively realised.
  • Emma Thompson was considered for Control.
  • Michael Caine, Bernard Hill and David Warner were considered for Josiah Samuel Smith.
  • Peter Firth was considered for Redvers Fenn-Cooper.
  • Simon Ward was considered for Redvers Fenn-Cooper and Josiah Samuel Smith.
• Working Title: The Bestiary and Life-Cycle.
• You Look Familiar: Michael Cochrane had previously played Lord Cranleigh in "Black Orchid", while Frank Windsor played Ranulf in "The King's Demons".

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